The background description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
All publications herein are incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application were specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.
Many parents wish to document and monitor their child's life well and in detail. Such documentation is especially important before the age of 18, while the parent is still a guardian of the child. With the demands of everyday living, however, it becomes harder to document a child's growth efficiently. Fortunately, many parents now have smart devices that could be used to improve the way parents can document their children's lives.
US 2009/0113350 to Hibino teaches an application that creates a visual summary of a hierarchically structured set of digital objects for facilitating efficient access to such objects through the selection of representative summary objects. Such visual summaries could be organized by year, month, and event information. A user could then choose to view a top level folder node to present a user with a representative visual summary object per year, or delve down to find a media object of choice, such as a digital image file. Hibino's application, however, creates such hierarchical structures automatically by computer-generated capture information such as a creation date, and fails to query users for both user-generated and computer-generated information to create such hierarchical structures.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,793,324 to Schames teaches a system that provides systems and methods for exchanged information in a social media to be organized according to discussion topics. Comments comprise text, but could include additional non-text data, such as a photo, video, or document. All comments in Schames, however, must comprise text with the non-text data. Schames fails to provide ways that a user could provide comments to a discussion topic in a non-text form.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,054,343 to Cheatle teaches a system that assists a user of a device having an image to assist a user of the device to capture subsequent images for a sequence of images that have substantially the same location and device orientation. This allows the system to construct a sequence of images that could be meshed into a video showing changes of an object over time. Cheatle's system, however, fails to automatically identify and construct a sequence of transformations of the object over time by scanning through a library of images.
Thus, there remains a need for a system and method that will allow a user to automatically document and record relevant changes in a child's life.
Summary of the Invention
The following description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
The inventive subject matter provides apparatus, systems, and methods in which a computer system manages a plurality of child profiles.
It should be noted that any language directed to a computer system should be read to include any suitable combination of computing devices, including servers, interfaces, systems, databases, agents, peers, engines, controllers, or other types of computing devices operating individually or collectively. One should appreciate the computing devices comprise a processor configured to execute software instructions stored on a tangible, non-transitory computer-readable storage medium (e.g., hard drive, solid state drive, RAM, flash, ROM, etc.). The software instructions preferably configure the computing device to provide the roles, responsibilities, or other functionality as discussed below with respect to the disclosed apparatus. In especially preferred embodiments, the various servers, systems, databases, or interfaces exchange data using standardized protocols or algorithms, possibly based on HTTP, HTTPS, AES, public-private key exchanges, web service APIs, known financial transaction protocols, or other electronic information exchanging methods. Data exchanges preferably are conducted over a packet-switched network, the Internet, LAN, WAN, VPN, or other type of packet switched network.
The computer system has a non-transitory computer-readable medium with instructions stored on the computer-readable medium, that when executed on a processor perform a series of processes to enable a user of the system to manage a child profile. Users generally interact with the computer system through a user interface, for example a computer screen with a mouse and a keyboard, or a touchscreen of a mobile device, such as a phone or a tablet device. Preferably, the user invokes an application on the mobile device to connect to the computer system and perform tasks to manage one or more child profiles.
In one embodiment, a system could define a life album to a child profile. A user of the system could use a life album user interface to add media files to a child profile. The user could upload, for example, one or more images of the child, one or more videos of the child, and/or one or more text descriptions of the child using the life album user interface. The system would then associate the uploaded media file (or files) with the child profile. Each media file preferably has timestamp metadata associated with it, such as a date and time of when the file was created or uploaded. In some embodiments, the timestamp metadata could be defined by a user through the life album user interface. Each media file associated with a child profile is preferably stored by the system on a portion of the memory. In the case of a life album, the media files associated with the child's profile is generally referred to as the life album memory.
The computer system could also be configured to automatically organize the media files in accordance with metadata associated with the media files. Preferably, the system uses the timestamp metadata, and organizes the media files in accordance to one or more time categories. For example, a media file could have a year time category, season time category, month time category, day time category, hour time category, minute time category, and/or any other type of time category that is used to categorize the media file. Media files could also be placed in categories by a user of the system. For example, the life album user interface could be configured to ask a user for a category, such as an event name for a portion of the media files saved in the life album memory of the child profile.
Once one or more categories have been assigned to a set of media files in the life album memory, the system could generate a life album tree structure for the media files as a function of the categories. For example, from the root of the tree, a first level could be the year assigned to the media file, the second level could be the month assigned to the media file, a third level could be the name of an event assigned to the media file, and a fourth level could be the type of the media file (e.g. an image file or a video file). The automatically generated tree preferably has at least three levels, and uses a combination of automatically generated categories (e.g. time categories, file type categories) and user-defined categories (e.g. event name category, event type category) from which to build the tree. Each media file generally represents a leaf on the tree, being a final destination for a user perusing a life album through a life album user interface.
The life album tree structure is generally provided to the user through the life album user interface. In some embodiments, the tree structure is provided as a navigable tree from root to leaf. In other embodiments, the tree structure is provided one level at a time, allowing a user to navigate from one tree junction to another tree junction like a user of a computer navigates through a directory tree from folder to folder. A user navigates a path to one or more leaves of the tree (generally a media file) by issuing a set of commands from the life album user interface to find one or more media files. Each child profile generally has its own life album tree, and a user could navigate to different leafs on different child profiles to view media files associated with each child profile. When the user finds a media file, the user could view the media file and can also associate additional content with the media file.
For example, the system could profile an input comment field to life album user interface that a user could use to create a comment for any of the media files. The input comment field is preferably configured to receive a comment in different forms. For example, a user might use the same input comment field to add a video comment (such as a video recorded by a camera on the device) an audio comment (such as an audio stream recorded by a microphone on the device) or a text comment (such as a text stream recorded by a keyboard user interface on the device). In some embodiments, a single comment might have several different forms (e.g. a single comment with a video stream, audio stream, and a box of text). When the system receives a comment in any form, the system preferably then associates the comment with the media file, and displays that comment to a user who has navigated to the media file, allowing a user viewing the media file to see that one or more comments are associated with the media file.
The life album user interface could also provide a user with a toggle specific to each media file, allowing the user to toggle whether or not the media file is a favorite media file of the user. If the user activates the toggle via a favorite toggle command, the system registers that an account associated with the user has marked the media file as a favorite of the user. When a user wishes to view his/her own favorite media files, the user could then navigate to a favorites user interface.
The system preferably generates a favorites album tree structure as a function of the media files that have their “favorite toggle” activated. The favorites tree structure preferably has at least two levels, where each media file is a leaf in the tree structure. In one embodiment, the tree structure could be configured to have identifiers of child profiles as nodes in the first level, and identifiers of the toggled media files in the second level. The favorites album tree structure is simpler than the life album tree structure, simplifying the media files into categories for each child profile. When a user navigates to a leaf of the tree structure, the user could then view any added comments that have been associated with the media file. Finalized favorites album tree structures could be displayed in a favorites user interface in ally appropriate manner.
The system could also provide a modeling user interface that enables a user to provide one or more media files saved in the life album memory to a modeling agency for use in an advertisement, or some other purpose. The system provides a modeling user interface that allows a user to select a media file from the life album memory and send a request to the system to transmit the first media file to a distal modeling computer system. The system then transmits the selected media file to the distal modeling computer system for review. The distal modeling computer system generally has its own user interface that authorized modeling agencies use to review the sent media file, and decide whether or not to license the media file for use. The modeling agency could then transmit a purchase order (generally for a license to the media file) to the computer system that manages the life album. A user could then decide whether or not to accept the purchase order through the modeling user interface and, if accepted, the system could debit an account as a function of the purchase order (typically through a credit/debit account identified in the purchase order), and transmit a license to a modeling entity as a function of the purchase order (the modeling entity is typically also identified in the purchase order).
The system is also configured to transmit one or more media files to a competition entity for review in one or more competitions. The system provides a competition user interface to a user that allows that user to select one or more media files as an entry to a competition. Preferably the system is set up such that only one media file saved in a child profile life album can be selected at a time, for example by associating a child profile unique identifier with a media file entry, and preventing additional media files from being saved with the same unique identifier. The system could then save the selected media file to a competition database functionally coupled with the system, where the competition database has a plurality of competition media files, generally from other child profiles or even submitted from other systems. The plurality of competition media files now include the sent media file.
The system could then provide the plurality of competition media files to a plurality of other competition user interfaces as entrants to the competition, allowing each competition user interface to vote for one or more of the media files. Preferably, the system is configured such that each user of the system can only cast a single vote for the duration of the competition. A competition duration might be for a specified period of time, or might last so long as the system is online. In some embodiments, a media file entry could be entered in a plurality of competitions, such as a weekly competition, a monthly competition, and a yearly competition. For each competition, the system preferably receives a plurality of votes and calculates a tally for each of the competition media files. At the end of a competition, the system could then provide an indicator of a winner of the competition to the competition user interface. The winner indicator is generally calculated as a function of the tally of votes for the media files. In some embodiments, multiple indicators could be used for multiple winners, for example a first place winner, second place winner, or a third place winner.
The system is preferably also configured to render a face transformation video of a child in a child profile. Since a life album of a child profile generally contains photos from throughout the child's life, the system could be configured to compile a video from the various photos that show how a face of the child has matured over time. The system generally presents a face transformation user interface to a user, and receives a command from the user to generate the face transformation video. The system then generally selects two or more facial images from the media files as a function of their timestamp metadata.
Where a media file is an image, the system could be configured to select the image itself as the facial image, or could be configured to automatically crop the image around a face. Where the media file is a video media file, the system could be configured to separate the video media file into a plurality of images for review. Generally, each facial image is selected from a different time period, for example a first facial image could be selected from the month of January while the second facial image could be selected from the month of February. Such time periods could be predefined by the system, or could be defined by a user through the face transformation user interface. The system could be configured to look at all images derived from media files within a time period, derive a facial clarity value for each of the images, and then select an image as a function of its derived facial clarity value. In some embodiments, the system could be configured to recognize features of a child profile face by identifying features of the child profile face in an image associated with the child profile (for example a main child profile photo selected by a user), and could filter out images that fail to contain a subset of the features of the child profile face by comparing the identified features against each of the available images, or against the media files directly.
Preferably, the system automatically selects an image with the highest facial clarity value. In some embodiments, where a user wishes more direct control over the process, the system could be configured to show a user all of the image files derived from media files within each time period through the face transformation user interface, and the user then picks an image from each of the presented sets of image files. Preferably, the system will rank the facial images by facial clarity value, presenting the user with facial images with the highest facial clarity first, and with facial images with the lowest facial clarity last. In some embodiments, the system could select a subset of the images having a derived facial clarity value above a predefined threshold facial clarity value, such as 60% clarity, 70% clarity, 80% clarity, or 90% clarity, and could provide that subset to a face transformation user interface for selection by a user.
Once the system has selected a set of facial images to construct the video from, the system can derive a set of facial features for each facial image, and generates a face transformation video containing each of the facial images that aligns the facial images with one another in the video as a function of the facial features. For example, the system could align a centerline of each face with a centerline of the video, or could align the images such that they all have overlapping nose locations, or could rotate the image so that all of the images have a same facial angle. The system could save the face transformation video to a face transformation memory location and present the video to the face transformation user interface.
Users of the system frequently collaborate with one another to discuss issues, such as issues with a child of a child profile. The system could provide a parental collaboration user interface that allows users to send a comment generation request to the system to generate a comment thread. Users of the system (generally parents) could then send comments to the comment thread, which are then saved in the comment thread. A comment thread generally contains comments from different users of different child profiles. For example, a first user of a first child profile could provide a comment to a comment thread, and a second user of a second child profile could provide a different comment to the same comment thread. A comment could comprise any sort of media content, for example text, audio, and/or video content. As used herein, video content comprises an audio component and a video component.
Once at least two comments have been saved to a comment thread, the system could be configured to automatically detect a common issue between the plurality of comments saved to the comment thread. Where a comment thread comprises a plurality of different types of media content, the system generally converts all media content to text content before automatically detecting a common issue between the plurality of comments. Where media content is text content, no conversion is necessary. Where media content is audio content, the system could use known speech recognition algorithms to convert audio content to text content. Where the media content is video content, the system could use known speech recognition patterns to convert the audio component of the video content to text content. Once the media content has been converted to text content, the comment thread has a set of text content from which the system could derive a common issue.
In some embodiments, the system derives a common issue by detecting recurring phrases from the plurality of comments. The system could be configured to only detect recurring phrases of a minimum length, such as three words, four words, five words, eight words, or 10 words, and/or the system could be configured to only detect recurring phrases from unquoted sections of a comment. As used herein, a “quoted” section of a comment is a section of a comment that quotes a previously saved comment in the comment thread, while an “unquoted” section of a comment is a section of a comment that does not quote a previously saved comment in the comment thread (i.e. the “original” section of the comment) The system could also be configured to detect whether an unquoted phrase has two or more literal phrase equivalents. As used herein, a “literal phrase equivalent” of a phrase is another phrase that is considered to be equivalent to a detected phrase. For example the phrase, “a child with a broken leg” could be considered an equivalent to the phrases “a boy with a broken leg” and “a girl with a broken leg,” or the phrase “a mentally challenged child” could be considered equivalent to the phrase “a mentally handicapped boy.” Such phrase equivalents would be considered by the system to be the same recurring phrase.
In some embodiments, the system could be configured to detect a plurality of common issues. For example, a comment thread might discuss problems with mentally handicapped children, problems with autistic children, and problems with children having ADHD. In such embodiments, the system might rank the many common issues into a ranked list sorted by the number of recurrences—having the most common issues at the top of the list and the least common issues at the bottom of the list. In some embodiments, a user of the parental collaboration user interface might highlight a phrase and send a notification to the system informing the system that the highlighted phrase is a potential common issue. The potential common issue could then be automatically added as a first instance of a recurring phrase, and the system could then automatically detect how many instances that recurring phrase has been used in the comment thread. In some embodiments, a user of the parental collaboration user interface might even identify literal phrase equivalents, allowing users to “teach” a system about new common issues and new literal phrase equivalents.
The following discussion provides many example embodiments of the inventive subject matter. Although each embodiment represents a single combination of inventive elements, the inventive subject matter is considered to include all possible combinations of the disclosed elements. Thus if one embodiment comprises elements A, B, and C, and a second embodiment comprises elements B and D, then the inventive subject matter is also considered to include other remaining combinations of A, B, C, or D, even if not explicitly disclosed.